


Supernova

by ziegler



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Romance, mature themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 23:31:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12420468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziegler/pseuds/ziegler
Summary: After having come so far on the road to liberating Ala Mhigo, Lyse knows there's only one way forward; and an injured Alisaie is forced into facing the gravity of being in love with a commander in the line of fire.





	Supernova

“Alisaie! Thank the Twelve!” Lyse cried, throwing her arms around me and weeping into my shoulder. “Don’t you _ever_ scare me like that again!”

If there hadn’t been a million factors between us, I would have kissed her at that moment without hesitation.

But there was.

And I wasn’t brave enough to feel dignified in making that decision.

I had been too reckless, too unthinking of my situation at the time. I had scared Lyse so badly that she was shaking in my arms. I felt worse about _that_ than I did about my own injury.

“I’m alright, silly.”

“Don’t dismiss this like it was nothing!” She protested into the crook of my neck as I hold her. “Alisaie, you…”

Her emotions choked.

“ _I_ was the one who almost died watching you get hurt like that!”

Her warm hands cupped my face. I felt the familiar pit of butterflies open up inside my stomach; the all too familiar pit that had been so present over the last year of trying to release the people from Imperial grip. The butterflies that circled my head when she looked at me. When she held me at night near campfires. The endless, swirling tornado of colour.

“…Lyse…”

Everything in my bones told me to kiss her. _Kiss her_!

“… _You_ are the silly thing, you know!” she mumbles, stroking my cheeks with her thumbs. “You really are.”

She collapsed in my arms at that moment, crying on my lap. I hated every moment of hearing Lyse cry. It felt as though she had done it far too often during our time together.

“…Don’t cry, darling.”

“Of course I’m crying,” she mumbled defiantly against my blanket. “I almost lost you through acting too rashly myself. If Fordola had gone even a step further, you wouldn’t be here!”

“No you didn’t. I made the choice for myself, you know that. And I am clearly resilient enough to survive her blade, am I not?”

“With healing magics, maybe!”

I felt horrid, unshakeable tears stinging at the edges of my eyes hearing her cry. Pure, unashamed tears.

My heart ached with guilt.

“Lyse…” I tried to speak again, but it was no use. I swallowed the hard lump of emotion down into my stomach. A most difficult pill to swallow. I couldn’t even get out the words to apologize.

All I could do was what I did, which was wrap my arms around her again, and bury my face into the vanilla of her hair. Her arms tightened around my waist gently, resting her head against my lap over the material of the covers. Her golden hair slipped through my fingertips like sand.

“Alisaie…” she choked out, and I held her tightly in my arms.

“I’m sorry, Lyse.” I finally managed to choke out into a mouthful of her hair. “I’m so sorry…for worrying you like this.”

I felt guilty for putting her in this position of despair at seeing another of the people she cared about get hurt. It had only been a few weeks since the last death, after all…let alone my potential demise.

The incident of my injury was bound to happen at some point. I knew Lyse had expected me to end up in a scrape sooner rather than later.

I had seen that Fordola was about to launch the cannons on her own people, and by the Twelve, something in me stirred with pure, unbridled rage. How could she kill her own people, when we were working so hard to stop the madness of it all?

I knew I had to do something, _anything_ if it meant lives would be saved. The adrenaline was too much…as was her blade that almost sliced me in half. I hadn’t registered it, at first. It was the most peculiar sensation to be struck with something so powerful.

I heard Lyse scream my name from behind me. I heard Alphinaud’s voice crack as he yelled for me to watch out, to fall back, that it was too dangerous. And then I felt the cold, cool whip of air against my face from Fordola’s slash of her blade, and I realized after a spurt of warm blood that the cold flash I had felt wasn’t the wind, but instead steel slicing open my skin.

“Alisaie!” Lyse gasped, rushing out next to me. I recalled the look in Fordola’s eyes of surprise that she had landed a hit, even as I fell to my knees.

When I awoke, I chided myself for days on end. How could I be so _stupid_ , that I would throw away the opportunity to be stood there with Lyse and the others at the end of all of this?

After all we had gone through together?

I had lost the opportunity to stand with someone that I had been wrestling with my feelings for all this time, and for what?

…No. I knew it wasn’t for nothing. I knew I had to try and save the people Fordola was about to blast into the ground. But I felt so foolish for putting myself there like that in such a rash manner.

I _was_ furious. Furious with myself, furious with mortality. But she knew I was, perceptive and thoughtful and perfect as she was. As she is, to this day. And she knew that she had to tell me something that I had been wanting to hear from the moment we met.

From the moment we lay eyes on each other.

I knew.

The first time Lyse told me she loved me was after that. I remember everything. You never forget a moment that changes your life in such a way.

I remember it all so _vividly_. The sight of some of my injured, groaning comrades in arms occupying the other beds; the alchemist who was constantly making new potions at her workbench, just across from my bed; and all of the hustle and bustle of Rhalgr’s Reach had circled around our ears, far into the medical room. Nobody could hear what we were saying, but I heard everything she had to say.

“Alisaie…” she began, after regaining her composure, and I smiled warmly at her. “I want to tell you something. Before I have to go, that is.”

_Could it be?_

“…And what might that be?”

_No, it wouldn’t be._

“That after all of this time…”

_…Is it?_

“…I think I’ve...well, I’m in love with you.”

I felt numb when Lyse said the words. She smiled, so brightly, and I could do nothing in return but stare dumbfounded at her.

She held my hands in her own as she told me. Her palms were always so warm, so strong and safe and somehow, just as beautiful as she was. I blinked at her in disbelief, and my eyes darted for a split second to the gaudily-coloured bottles on the shelves opposite my bed before I looked back at her.

“…What?”

“I love you, Alisaie.” she repeated with her same, Twelve-given gift of fearlessness and bravery, before giving my hands a gentle squeeze. “…I do.”

My following sentence slipped out before I could process what to say in response.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

Lyse remained unphased, almost as though she had been expecting my less than adoring response, and chuckled in a way that hurt my heart to hear. Almost as though she had resigned herself to something worse than the ordeal I had gone through.

“Because…”

I knew why she was telling me, even without her saying why.

 _Don’t say it_ , I thought desperately. Don’t say it. Because saying it makes the possibility real.

“…Because if I die,” she mumbles with an indescribable, unsure smile, “then I want you to know. That I love you, that is.”

The knife went through my heart in an instant at even the suggestion of her death.

We sat for a moment, dumbfounded on the edge of my bed. The faint, tinkling sound of the swaying lantern above our heads reached our ears, and the loud noises of boots and chatter became white amidst our thoughts.

Her leather-clad hands held my own so gently. Always so gentle. I could hardly stand to not allow myself to be so affectionate back.

The scent of fresh sheets and cotton and sickly-sweet alchemic potions swirling around the room. Alphinaud and the others had left, presumably to give us some alone time. I felt sick with the idea of Lyse dying.

“Don’t say things like that.” I finally spoke into the silence.

“But it might happ -”

“No.” I firmly cut her off, and my eyes met with her own sapphires. “It won’t.”

Lyse huffed through her nostrils, and my gaze fell back to our hands.

One of hers let go of mine for just a moment, waving it in front of her face dismissively before she placed it back in my own.

“Well, never mind that! What about you!”

“What about _me_?”

“Yes! Honestly, Alisaie, I just told you I _love_ you, you know? That wasn’t an easy thing to do!”

I looked at her incredulously.

“W-Well, you see…how to say…”

_You fool! Tell her!_

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes to steady my nerves. I squeezed her hands.

“Lyse, I -”

“Commander Hext!” Another voice interrupted abruptly, and it was not my own.

We are both immediately snapped out of our bubble.

The noise returns as though it were never gone.

“Oh! Y-Yes?!”

“Time to head off! We’d better get a move on, or we won’t make it there before three days’ sunset!”

Lyse paused, and I could tell without even seeing her face that she didn’t want to leave my side.

“R…right! Tell General Aldynn I’ll be right there!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The soldier saluted, before letting the curtain fall back over the medical hall’s arched doors. Lyse took a moment before she would look at me again.

“Lyse, I -”

I felt a finger come up to my lips.

“Nope.”

“What?!” I spoke over the skin brushing me. “ _Lyse_!”

She smiled at me as she held her finger there.

“Hearing how frazzled you are, and being told that we need to go so quickly after arriving here…I had almost forgotten how dire things are in the outside world.” she laughs weakly, before she stands. “Just…tell me when I come back. Alright? Even if your feelings change, or something. Just tell me when I return. Tell me how you feel…when you want to.”

“But I might not see you for months!” I choked out, and the realization hit me like a ton of bricks that I might not see her again _period_.  

My grip became uncharacteristically desperate against her hands.

“And my feelings won’t change for you, no matter how long this takes, or whatever happens. So make sure you get better, and then we...”

She paused.

“…I’m sorry to drop that on you, Alisaie. It was irresponsible of me to do it now, but…I just had to let you know.”

“Lyse, wait!”

_Don’t go._

_Please…_

She turned her head slightly towards me and smiled. I felt the frustration of not being able to move set in more than ever.

“…I’ll see you soon.”

“Wait, just a second longer! Please, _Lyse_!”

And with a final, brief fall of the purple curtain before me, she was gone.

I cried for the first time that night in years. I pounded my bed with my fists in frustration – as much as I could, anyway – and winced at my injury in doing so. On the Twelve, I could barely remember the last time I had fully cried since this had all began, even with all of the death.

With Krile’s disappearance, Y’shtola’s near-death experience, Conrad’s murder…so much had happened, and above it all, matters of the heart were getting to me the very most.

The last time I remembered crying was coming upon grandfather under Bahamut’s thrall.

I had thought about how I hadn’t had much contact with Lyse prior to the events of the last year. We had met, briefly, once or twice during her beginnings with the Scions; mostly I was wrapped up in trying to contain Bahamut, whilst she was under the guise of Yda around the Scions and others.

But this time, I stayed up all night on the night Lyse went to war. I couldn’t stop thinking about her, about kissing her perfect lips, or the ruby red silk of her gown. The way she flowed, the strength of her hands, her guiding light of a smile. I hated it. I hated being in love. But the worst part was not being able to do anything about it – because I knew if I could kiss her, if I could just tell her…I would relish the sensation.

When Lyse left, it felt like a part of me died.

Before I knew it, two months had passed, and my twenty-first birthday came and went staring at the ceiling.

I spent it alone in bed wondering if the woman I loved and my brother were lay dead in the palace of the most awful man to walk this earth. And with nary a linkshell to communicate back with, either; no linkshells, the general majority had apparently said, in case of any contact from afar alerting the troops that they might have had more resources elsewhere. No outside risks, and not that I could blame them.

But a series of miracles was about to befall me. And after everything, I was indescribably glad for it.

I heard the pitter-patter of someone frantically running to the medical hall. I recognized that beat of boots. I knew that kind of frantic run only came with the announcement of a death.

“They did it!” The small soldier cries, with tears of joy on his face. “They did it! The banner flies! They saved us all!”

The medical ward was more alive than ever, as all of us made noises of intrigue; the sound of surrounding beds creaking with the force of each and every injured person shuffling.

 “What?!” I cried, as I leapt up from my bed, wincing as I clutched my side. “They liberated Ala Mhigo?!”

“They did!” The jubilant soldier replies before me, and suddenly, as though everyone had been listening to this little boy, the cheers of Rhalgr’s Reach are deafening. “They defeated Zenos!”

I cried into my hands with a smile - they did it!

“What of Lyse? What of Alphinaud?” I asked him, pleading. The little boy before me smiled.

“…They were both stood there at the end, miss. Lyse led the song atop the castle...they did it. It’s finally over.”

He ran off quickly to return with the others, and I placed my hands over my mouth in elation. They did it.

I would see Lyse again soon. And then, I would tell her.

“I’ll tell her…” I mumbled to myself, and I felt my potions kicking in as I drowsily lay on the bed, dizzy from such a rush. “I’ll tell her…as soon as I can.”

I slept the best I ever had that night; and after a week, I was finally fully recovered.

The first moment I saw Lyse again after everything was the best moment of my life. I had been sitting on what felt like eggshells for weeks, feeling so resolved, so sure, so unshakeably resolute about what I was going to say, what I was going to do, how I would approach the subject in case she had forgotten as soon as I saw her. I was positive that I knew what I would do.

And I had been given so much time to think. A wealth of it, at that. Thinking of the curves of Lyse’s hips, the golden blue shimmer of her eyes, the hard comfort of her arms around my waist. I blushed at the thought of kissing her, and my mind wandered even further still. I shook my head every time the thought entered my head, but I knew that love often came with lust. I learned firsthand now more than ever.

But something that I had never _once_ learned in all of my travels, besides my caring for Alphinaud, naturally, was that matters of the heart can never truly be predicted. You can never predict how you are truly going to react to something…and especially when that topic has the potential for the person you love never coming back alive again.

“Lyse…” I mumbled to myself, waiting what seemed like an eternity.

I waited, every day after the announcement of victory, just outside the entrance to Rhalgr’s Reach. I waited atop the watchtowers, waited along the boulders of the sands. I waited, and I waited, for any single sign of them to return. And when I first saw her in the distance of the Peaks, my heart leapt.

She was shining. My breath left my lips in an instant, carried away by a desert-clad wind. Her glimmers of gold and ruby red made her radiant before the sun’s setting light, but even without the outfit, I could see from a distance that she had changed. She was so much more powerful, somehow so weathered, and somehow, despite the sights she must have seen, she had changed for the better.

I leant over the brittle wood of the watchtower’s platform, waving excitedly. I had never felt such a sensation coarse through my veins before. I felt like a child again.

“Lyse!” I shouted, with all my might. “Lyse!”

Her _strides_ , even I could see, were the most powerful they had ever been. She walked with conviction, with her self-same bravery that I had always known her for, and held her head high - just like a true leader. She had led her people to victory.

And I watched, as she waved back to me, with such a sense of pride; as her and Alphinaud walked across the desert back to me.

I could see that her steps had picked up. I ran down the watchtower’s wooden staircase, ran as though my life depended on it. I saw her running at full pelt now, and I found that I was too, if only from the sand in my boots. But I ran, and I ran, and I ran into her arms. I threw them around her hot skin, my fingertips aching as they touched at her. Her lips brushed my cheek as she spun me around, and I barely registered that Alphinaud was nearby, at that. He was safe – that was what mattered. And if he was safe, then I was free to…

“Alisaie!” Lyse joyfully wept, and crumpled to her knees. “Alisaie, we did it! We…we really did it…”

The spritely yells of triumph filled our ears as the army behind Lyse were reminded once more of their long sought victory. Alphinaud rubbed both of our backs, and even I could tell he was a little choked.

“Welcome home,” I mumbled against Lyse’s ear with a smile. I could tell she was smiling, and that she was desperately overwhelmed by everything happening to her at once.

We remained in silence for a moment as the army crowd ran past us; ran back to their families, their own loved ones, and all of their history and futures in the centre of this revolution. Lyse remained as silent, her face buried in my neck. I felt the desperation to kiss her taking over my lips almost involuntarily.

“I missed you.” She whispered finally.

I responded by holding her closer than I thought I ever could.

 

The night that followed only served further to my falling in love.

 

After the return of everyone, of the individuals that had fought hard and long for the freedom of their people, and of course Lyse, there were many speeches and spectacles that others wanted to do. People wanted to demonstrate their personal pride, their thankfulness and gratitude to their comrades, to Conrad, to Ala Mhigo as a whole; I watched it all, and I did not let go of Lyse’s hand for the duration. She knew as well as I did that amidst all of the speeches before us that we had our own conversation to have.

“Meet me along the bridges over the water.” I mumbled to her quietly. “Come out there when everybody is asleep in a few hours.”

Lyse nodded wordlessly, but I could see, could feel that her whole body was vibrating. I felt my own adrenaline rushing through my veins, unrelenting and endless.

The idea of kissing her, of touching her, of…

I shook my head once more. I waited eagerly for a few hours to pass. The speeches continued, and Lyse gave her own closing speech. Finally, peace was returned to Ala Mhigo; and the relaxing air was beginning to settle in more than ever amidst the navy blanket of night.

Lyse met me over the stone bridges of Rhalgr’s Reach as the clock struck midnight.

The stars above us shone like tiny diamonds, and the air was cool, empty of sound, and so full of life. Her bright smile, her glinting eyes; I felt spoiled at the sight.

“Alisaie…” she spoke softly as she slowly walked up, and both of us grinned.

“Hello, stranger.”

Lyse chuckled, and walked closer to me.

“It’s nice to see you back on your feet. Was your recovery alright?”

I shrugged, and my gaze fell to the burning bright of the fireflies around us. I could hardly bear the pleasantries.

“It was as good as it _could_ be, I suppose. And how was liberating the entirety of Ala Mhigo and the East from Imperial grip?”

“Well…it was as good as it could be, I _suppose_.”

We both laughed amongst each other, and I folded my arms.

A silence between us. A heavy silence of knowing how much we had to say.

It was now or never, and we both knew it.

“Alisaie, I -”

“Lyse…I’ve been -”

We both make a noise of surprise, before we smile at each other. She offers her hand in suggesting I go first, and I know not to waste the opportunity.

Not again.

“…been wanting to talk to you ever since you left. You know that, don’t you?”

She nodded, and I could tell from the mannerism that she had of rubbing her neck that she was about to apologize.

I quickly placed a finger against her lips.

“Hey, w-!”

“Shut up and let me have this.”

She paused for a moment, before her eyes softened, remembering just where she had said that to me before in our travels.

I smiled at her with warmth.

I moved in closer to her, and the air between us was already intense. Her having been gone for so long, all of my angst coming to a boiling point. It was a tough pill to swallow once again.

I looked up towards the stars and the fireflies hovering above me, and I looked back down to the shining, shimmering sapphires of Lyse’s eyes.

“Lyse,” I began. “I want you to know that I have had a lot of time to think about my answer to your statement.”

She remained silent, her gaze transfixed upon my lips. I felt a little heat rising to my cheeks.

“This is terribly embarrassing…”

“Come on…” She began, and I looked up at her in shock as she moved a little closer. “Tell me…tell me everything that’s been on your mind.”

“…I couldn’t possibly do that, actually. I think you underestimate just how much time I did have to think.”

“Then tell me about the most important parts. You don’t have to tell me about anything…that you feel is too embarrassing.”

I smiled at her knowingly, and I could see even amidst the weak lights of Rhalgr’s Reach that she was blushing.

Now was the time. I steeled my nerves, and parted my lips. I began to talk.

“When we first met, I did not realize the impact you would have on my life.”

I hear the breath hitch in her throat. I can hardly bear to look at her beautiful face as I talk.

“The nights that we would spend laying together before campfires, the protective nature of us both over one another…I had never quite come across a woman like you before. Someone so headstrong, so fearless, so willing to express emotions. I was both proud and honoured…to call you my friend.”

Lyse continued to remain silent. I turned away from her bashfully, and began to pace with my hands behind my back.

“…But there came a point in The Ruby Sea where I realized something. And that something was that you are not just a friend to me, Lyse. You are more than that. You are everything.”

I turned to face her, my resolve more powerful than ever.

“You have gotten me through the darkest times of this terrible journey. Your beauty, bravery, kindness…you are an inspiration. An inspiration so bold, and so bright, that you shine like the sun to us all. You, Lyse Hext, are the sun that Ala Mhigo has needed for so long. A sun that burns so brightly that it even crosses to the Far East.”

I pushed down my sense of embarrassment, and cast it to the wind. She had to know. Twelve be damned, she would know, after leaving me for so long to think. She would know as much as I was going to tell her. Nobody knew what tomorrow held. I wasn’t prepared to waste it.

“But most of all, Lyse, you…”

I choked on my words a little, and I looked down at the stone beneath my feet.

“…You are _my_ sun, too. And…”

She moved closer to me in that moment, and her hands hovered nearer to my own. I fumbled.

“…I love you, too. I love you so…” I mumbled, and reached out to touch her face. “And I missed you more than you will ever know.”

Lyse didn’t speak, after that.

Within just a few seconds of my admission, her lips were on mine as comfortably and passionately as though we had kissed all of our lives together.

I made a noise of surprise, but she didn’t at all. I could feel her lips kissing me so _softly_ , so gently, like she had always kissed me, and yet with so much passion that I could barely deny her love for me.

I felt every ounce of it poured into her kiss. Everything she had to give me, everything she had thought about. Her strong arms wrapped around me as my own rest against her shoulder, my fingers slinking into the silk of her hair once more; and she kissed me for what felt like an age.

Her breath against my lips was something I had craved, along with the sensation of her fingertips against my back. My own played with the strands of her golden hair as we stood, and I felt a little overwhelmed by how quickly it became such a heated, intimate moment.

It was very apparent that Lyse had experienced almost as much time to think as I had, and I was certain it was about the same _subjects_. The thoughts of intimacy, of _being_ intimate, the thoughts of kissing, of touching, of holding each other. I blushed at the thought of Lyse on top of me as it was, and I certainly wondered how she felt about it after we finished kissing.

We broke apart after what felt like a lifetime, with my hands resting gently on her shoulders, and her strong arms around my waist. Our lips made a satisfying noise as we stopped; a soft, unspoken noise that felt so familiar, and I looked upon her flushed face with a sense of delight.

She smiled, and raised her eyebrows at me.

“Well I think that certainly cleared up a few things, don’t you?”

“Of course you’d respond like that.”

Lyse kissed my forehead, and held her lips there for a moment too long to be a casually affectionate kiss. I felt the emotion flowering inside my heart.

“…Don’t you ever do that again.”

“Hm?”

“Telling a woman you know full well is in love with you how you feel and then just rushing off. Even if it _is_ to liberate an entire country.”

“Alisaie…” she said, and I recognized the mischevious grin that had soon developed on her handsome face. “Actually, I can’t believe I almost forgot…”

As one arm held my waist, she rummaged around in her pocket. I looked at her with a deep curiosity, curious as to what on earth could be breeched in these moments of ours as she pulled out a small box.

My eyes widened at the expensive finish on the material.

“ _Lyse_?”

“Happy birthday.” She grinned. I felt dizzy with anticipation.

“You managed to get me a gift amidst _everything_?”

“Who said I got it on this trip? I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember since we met, you know. Every time I looked at Alphinaud I felt wistful.”

I felt my heart melting.

“How can you be so casual, all of a sudden…”

“No sense in not being, is there?” She beamed, and I shook my head out of the dizzy stupor as my fingers held the present gently.

My eyes eagerly awaited the opening; and, as I opened the box, I saw a beautiful silver ring with a large, sapphire-like jewel atop the band.

I gasped, at first thinking it was an eternity ring; but then I realized that it was merely a suspiciously close replica.

“Lyse, this is beautiful…!”

I kissed her lips again as though we hadn’t just had our first kiss mere moments ago.

“I couldn’t forget your birthday! Ongoing war or not, you know? And besides...”

I looked up at her; at the very own love of my life; and the new face of the Resistance.

“And besides…?”

She pulled me closer into her arms; a hair’s breadth away from each other’s lips once more, and rest her forehead against mine before pulling me into another kiss, and whispering with her usual, fearless charm;

“…I had a feeling that things were going to end this way. Or should I say begin?”

**Author's Note:**

> if you enjoyed this, then i'm happy to say i just finished writing my first game as part of Noodletub Games - and it's out on Steam right now! it's called The Ghost of You. if you want to sink your teeth into a suspense-horror-love story about an entirely lesbian cast, then please check it out [here](https://noodletub.tumblr.com/post/181306988281/the-ghost-of-you-out-now-on-steam)! thank you so much! ♥


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